Dropping gym-going after 20+ years

[Ready]

I bought a two year prepaid membership to 24 Hour Fitness from Costco for $650, which comes out to $27/month. The gym by my house is only a year old so it's still in good shape. It has a pool, hot tub, sauna and steam room, so it's fairly well equipped. Some of the 24 Hour Fitness gyms are really worn out and I would not find it very enjoyable to work out at them.

I was swimming there almost every day, but I recently joined a swim team, so I do most of my swimming with the team now at a different pool. Now I find that if I go to the gym by myself to swim, I get bored quickly.

If you have a friend or significant other who you enjoy working out with I think it helps a lot for some people. My experience with gyms in general is they get very busy around January-February when everyone makes their new year resolution to start exercising. By March they are only busy during the peak times (early mornings, early evenings). The rest of the day they are pretty mellow.

 

[kramer]

They say that resistance exercise is particularly important once you reach 50.

I am an introvert and haven't really made friends at the gym or race track/park where I run. I am a Gold's Gym member and it's just $300/year here in the Philippines.

I alternate days running (3 miles running all out, 2 mile cool down walk, 1 or 2 sprints) and gym (1 hour intense muscle workout, whole body), averaging 5 days per week total. This keeps me in great physical shape.

If something social comes up, I just skip my workout if I need to and count that as my off day. I find alternating gym/cardio keeps my interest higher.

I have started walking more when I go out as well. A number of my friends have confided in me that they feel real bad about themselves as they have let their health slip, but they are unwilling to change and do anything about it. That is so sad.

I have been running for 11 years and going to the gym for 7 years, and it has changed my body and also given me a more positive outlook.

 

[hesperus]

I've been (learning and) doing olympic lifts the last year, ie the snatch, the clean, jerk, squats, deadlifts, and all the progressions they involve - hang clean, pulls, drop snatch, overhead squats, etc.. All I can say is - wow. Talk about intensive workouts, with both balance and skill development. I love the way these lifts work the entire body in a dynamic movement, legs, shouders, back, arms, etc... I picked up a strength trainer for a few sessions who used to coach at the local college. He has helped so much in getting my form and program pulled together.
When I leave the gym, I feel good, but the next morning I can be very sore. At 59 yrs old, I can maybe do these 3x week, but 2x is better for recuperation. These olympic lifts are also so much more fun than just going in there and doing static weight training. It's also a very very good cardio workout when taking only short 1 minute rests between sets. It's opening up a new frontier for me, and my body is liking it.